The Corrs

Although it’s been four years since The Corrs’ last studio album, there are no lengthy vacations or uneventful navel gazing to report in the space between 2000’s In Blue and the just-released Borrowed Heaven. The four sibs—Andrea, Sharon, Caroline and Jim—have been perpetually busy since their 1996 debut Forgiven Not Forgotten made them worldwide pop superstars. And this broad success has demanded much from Ireland’s favorite family band.

“After touring In Blue, we made the VH-1 Unplugged in America and then we did charity things in Africa,” says Andrea of the time between albums. “But we needed to take a step back from it for a bit, because we’d worked very intensively from Forgiven Not Forgotten through, really. It was: write album, record album, tour a couple of years and straight back in. It was vital that we take a break, and our success gave us the luxury of being able to do that.”

The Corrs’ break was not long by most standards but it was effective. Without a timetable to produce work, ideas began to flow easily for the quartet. “It was liberating, really,” says Andrea. “We wrote it basically in Dublin and very much on inspiration. It wasn’t on a timeframe. We weren’t going to make an album unless we had songs to write. We weren’t taking any pressure on from anybody. We felt it very much in our power at this point to say, ‘No, not ready yet.’”

This very relaxed mode of working ultimately resulted in an energized set of Corrs songs and a band anxious to record them. The Corrs fashioned Borrowed Heaven as a fresh expression of the pop they’ve been plying for nearly a decade. “There was no plan to find a new sound or make it different,” says Andrea of Borrowed Heaven’s sonic edge. “We wanted it to be a journey from beginning to end. The only goal that we all had was to make a great album. At this point in our careers, that’s all that matters. We have success; we have money. The whole thing with this album is completely about music for music’s sake. The feeling that you’ve fulfilled your potential.”